Nuclear security

STRATCOM Head Makes Case for Protecting Nuclear Budget

The head of US Strategic Command laid out a case for why the US needs to move forward with a costly full-scale recapitalization of its nuclear arsenal, just weeks before the Pentagon will unveil its budget for the next fiscal year.

Adm. Cecil Haney, who has headed STRATCOM since 2013, told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies that the US needs to modernize all three legs of the so-called nuclear triad in order to keep near-peer nations such as Russia and China from feeling they can gain a qualitative edge over America’s military.

“This is critical in the global security environment. It is clear that, for the foreseeable future, other nations are placing high priority" on developing their own nuclear deterrence capabilities, he said.